It's stopped the five adopted children of the late Astec Industries CEO J. Don Brock from contesting their father's estate twice now - a 110-year legal decision known as "the Cowan rule." But thanks to a rare "nudge" by an appeals judge, the Tennessee Supreme Court may take up the 1906 case and reconsider its long-standing precedent, attorneys said Friday. Since September 2015, the siblings have argued their father's second wife and former secretary, Sammye Brock, teamed up with two other adopted children - Sammye Brock's from a previous marriage - to axe them from a 2013 will. Brock died in March 2015 of mesothelioma. Last week, the Tennessee Court of Appeals in Knoxville agreed with a local court that upheld J. Don Brock's will - albeit grudgingly, said Marya Schalk, one of the attorneys representing the siblings. "It seems like the court had a problem reaching the decision it reached because of Cowan," Schalk said. So what is Cowan? It's a 1906 Tennessee Supreme Court decision saying a descendant left nothing in an earlier, unprobated will has no standing to contest a later will. In English: You can't contest the final will if you weren't left anything in a ...